A modest residence in Hodal town, located in Haryana, has suddenly emerged as the epicenter of a fierce political controversy. House No. 265, specifically highlighted by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his recent press conference alleging voter fraud, has sparked a sharp confrontation between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Opposition.
The Congress party claimed that a staggering 501 voters were registered at this single address, House No. 265, which they argued laid bare widespread irregularities in the electoral rolls. The property is owned by Sundar Singh, a local BJP leader and former municipal councillor.
Yet, a visit to the ground in Ward No. 21 painted a picture far removed from the sensational allegations.
Residents and local officials attributed the issue to a simple clerical error rather than any deliberate fraud. They clarified that nearly every house in the area had been erroneously assigned the same house number, 265, because of a mistake committed by the Booth Level Officer (BLO) during data entry.
“We have five homes in a row here, all belong to my brothers and cousins,” said Sundar Singh. “All these houses have been marked as House No. 265 in the voter list. Even homes belonging to my grandfather’s brothers in adjoining lanes are listed under the same number.”
Singh acknowledged that the house numbering mistake was purely administrative in nature. However, he noted that the problem of dual voter registration did exist in certain instances. “Many of them have become voters here while retaining their registration in Uttar Pradesh, that’s a serious concern and should be looked into,” he added.
Local residents insisted they were legitimate voters and attributed the entire confusion to “administrative oversight.” Some conceded that although their Aadhaar cards reflected different addresses, the voter list had uniformly recorded them under House No. 265.
In response to the growing outcry, the Palwal district administration promptly initiated a comprehensive door-to-door verification campaign to detect and rectify any discrepancies in the voter list. Booth Level Officers have been instructed to personally visit each household in Ward No. 21 to confirm details and guarantee the correctness of the electoral rolls.
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The row has unfolded against the backdrop of intensifying accusations of electoral roll tampering. Just earlier this week, Rahul Gandhi asserted that Haryana’s voter lists were infested with bogus and duplicate entries, declaring that “one in every eight voters in Haryana is fake.” He stated that his team had identified “25 lakh fake votes” and produced what he called “100 per cent proof” of systemic irregularities, including cases of individuals registered multiple times under varying names.
Gandhi further charged the BJP with orchestrating a “planned operation” to undermine democracy and cautioned that a comparable attempt at “vote theft” might be made during the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.
In the meantime, sources within the Election Commission rejected Gandhi’s allegations outright, noting that no formal appeals had been lodged challenging the state’s electoral rolls. They also highlighted that merely 22 election petitions remain pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
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